If you remember 60’s AM and jukebox smash hits such as Question Mark and the Mysterians ’96 Tears’, Count Five ‘Psychotic Reaction’, Electric Prunes ‘I Had Too Much To Dream’, or Standells ‘Dirty Water’; it may come as some shock that they were only the veritable tip of the iceberg.  The advent of the Beatles and the subsequent British Invasion combined with the concurrent US surf, hot rod, folk, and girl group music scenes coalesced into what is now referred to as ‘garage rock’.  Teenage bands in the suburbs practiced in the garage, or wherever they could, playing at sockhops, teen clubs, and battles of the bands.  This was a unique period in US culture where teenagers (and even pre-teens) had come into their own as a consumer market to reckon with.  The baby boomer consumer base paired with the local record producer / radio station / store infrastructure kindled an explosion of product that is truly staggering.

For a grandly cinematic account of the scene, check out Tom Hank’s That Thing You Do (Director’s Cut recommended).  For the real deal, TeenBeat Mayhem is a product of 20 years of extensive research and finds garage bands from locations across the US providing release dates of each record, a brief description of the type and sub genre of music represented, and even a 1 – 10 scale panel rating of over 20,000 discs that identify the good, the great, and the absolute killers [genre slang for exceptional].  The author also provides several essays detailing the genesis, proliferation, demise, rediscovery, and resurgence of the garage band phenomenon.